§ Mr. HoramTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer to the right hon. Member for Selby (Mr. Alison) on 8 June,Official Report, column 51, when in July the next edition of the households below average income statistics will be published.
§ Mr. LilleyThe new edition of the households below average incomes—HBAI—statistics, covering the years 1979 to 1988–89, has been published today. Copies have been placed in the Library.
In order to improve the statistical accuracy of the results, this edition combines data from the years 1988 and 1989. It also incorporates methodological changes which were the subject of consultation with a range of independent experts in 1991, and takes into account recommendations of the Social Security Select Committee.
Like its predecessors, this edition of HBAI is based on the family expenditure survey, FES. The primary purpose of the FES is to provide data for the construction of the retail prices index. Both its sample size and its method of compilation limit its usefulness as a source of data on family incomes, especially for small sub-groups of the population. Analysts in my Department have sought to overcome these limitations so far as possible—for example, by combining data from two consecutive years to enlarge the sample size—but it has become increasingly clear that the only real solution was to improve the data base itself. I have therefore authorised the establishment of a new family resources survey—FRS—which will in due course replace the FES as the main source of income and expenditure data for DSS purposes. Survey data for the FRS will begin to be collected in October 1992 and will in future years both improve and speed up the preparation of analyses such as the HBAI statistics.